How to stay fit this Winter | Top tips to maintain your fitness routine

Winter can be a challenging time of the year when it comes to maintaining your fitness routine.

With the shorter days, the cold weather and of course the holiday season, staying on the sofa with a pile of blankets is sometimes more tempting than getting up and working out.

However, we all know how beneficial exercise is all year round. So here are my top tips on how to stay fit this Winter and make your workouts happen!

Why maintaining your fitness routine is important

Exercising all the way through Winter isn’t about “earning” your Christmas dinner or “preparing your Summer body”.
Although there is nothing wrong with having aesthetic goals, it’s important to remember that our main reason to exercise should be to take care of our health and celebrating our body’s abilities rather than punishing ourselves.

Exercise offers many, many health benefits, both mental and physical. Here are just a few:

It helps maintain solid bones and joints
It helps maintain good heart health
It limits your risk of developing chronic illness
It uplifts your mood and lowers your stress levels
It boosts your confidence and your self-esteem

If you’re interested in hearing more about the benefits of weight training in particular, check out this dedicated blog post.

So to me, the major reason for maintaining my fitness routine all year round is simply to look after my health. But I get that sometimes, we all need some more “practical” tips to help us stay on track.

How to stay fit this Winter: top tips

Set a fitness goal

Working towards a specific goal, tracking your progress and setting a deadline is a great way to maintain your fitness routine during the Winter months.

Your fitness goal doesn’t have to be about weight loss or looks. It can (and I highly recommend) be a performance or strength goal. Maybe a 5k PB, getting your first pull up or deadlifting your bodyweight are examples of a great goal to get stuck in with!

Stick to a plan and a weekly schedule

Although it’s fine to allow yourself to go with the flow and not following any strict exercise programme at some point during the year, I’d highly recommend following a programme during Winter, especially if you struggle with motivation. Following a programme gives you a solid structure and makes it harder to skip a workout. It’s even more important if you have a specific goal, so that you will effectively train to achieve it.

For instance, if you like to do several activities, create your schedule, put it in your diary and stick to it: Swimming on Mondays and Wednesdays, Spin class on Tuesday, Yoga on Sunday.

If you have a specific running goal, you will most likely be mostly running and I’d recommend getting a running coach to create your programme.

If your goal revolves around weight training, I’d also advisee getting a personalised programme from qualified trainer. If you didn’t know, I am myself a personal trainer and I offer online coaching as well as personalised 8 week plans. They can be gym or home-based.

Not to mention that having a coach keeping you accountable is extremely beneficial when motivation dips in the middle of Winter!

Have an accountability partner

If hiring an online coach isn’t for you, I’d still recommend teaming up with someone, whether it’s your partner or a friend, who’s also determined to stay fit during the Winter.

You can both keep each other accountable, support each other when you feel unmotivated and maybe train together sometimes.

Remember that you’re doing this for you

You are exercising for your health, for you wellbeing, for yourself. Exercise is a form of self-care and you owe it to yourself to make time for it.

Plus, remember how good, empowered and energised you feel after a workout. Yes, it might be hard to stay motivated and drag yourself to the gym during Winter, but the post-workout feels are so worth it!